107:, Shadwell claimed that he had created four entirely new humours characters, by which he meant the titular virtuoso Sir Nicholas Gimcrack, Sir Formal Trifle (described in the cast list as "the Orator, a florid coxcomb"), Sir Samuel Hearty ("a brisk, amorous, adventurous, unfortunate coxcomb; one that by the help of humorous, nonsensical bywords takes himself to be a wit"), and Sir Nicholas's uncle Snarl ("an old, pettish fellow, a great admirer of the last age and a declaimer against the vices of this, and privately very vicious himself.") Though some critics believe that Sir Nicholas is an inconsistent character, of the four, his is the character with the most significant literary legacy. Scholars have discerned the influence of Sir Nicholas in the works of numerous subsequent playwrights, including
158:
scientific pursuits. He first turns to his wife for help, but she abandons him in favour of Hazard, taking her money with her, then to his uncle Snarl, but Snarl reveals that he has married Mrs. Figgup and Sir
Nicholas's hopes of inheriting his money are dashed. Last, Sir Nicholas begs his nieces for their fortunes, but they reveal that they have settled guardianship of their estates with Bruce and Longvil. Hoping at least for continuing love from Mrs. Flirt, Sir Nicholas is once again disappointed, as she informs him that she "love(s) men but as far as their money goes."
463:
131:, Sir Nicholas Gimcrack. Bruce is in love with Clarinda and Longvil with Miranda. Unfortunately, Clarinda is in love with Longvil and Miranda with Bruce. Each lady also has a rival suitor. Clarinda is wooed by her uncle's best friend, the absurd orator Sir Formal Trifle, and Miranda by a gallant fool, Sir Samuel Hearty.
157:
Ultimately, Bruce and
Longvil pragmatically conclude that Bruce should transfer his affections to Miranda (who loves him) and Longvil should transfer his to Clarinda (who loves him.) Meanwhile, Sir Nicholas receives the terrible news that his estates have been seized to pay off debts incurred in his
142:
While they attempt to pay court to
Miranda and Clarinda, Bruce and Longvil are in turn courted by Sir Nicholas's promiscuous wife, Lady Gimcrack, who also keeps a lover, Hazard, on the side. Sir Nicholas similarly keeps a lover by the name of Mrs. Flirt, who in turn is having an affair with Hazard.
192:
While many critics interpret the play as a direct attack on the Royal
Society, others argue that, far from satirising the Royal Society, Shadwell was actually focusing on specific follies that the Royal Society expressly rejected, or that, as members of the Royal Society at that time included both
149:
There follow various contrivances and convolutions, including the seduction of both Bruce and
Longvil by Lady Gimcrack, the attempted rape of Sir Samuel (disguised as a woman) by Sir Formal, the discovery that Snarl has a fetish for being beaten with rods, and an uprising of
134:
To gain admittance to Sir
Nicholas's house where they can see their beloveds, Bruce and Longvil feign an interest in Sir Nicholas's absurd experiments, which include learning to swim on dry land by imitating a frog,
244:
Wheatley, Christopher J. "'Who Vices Dare
Explode': Thomas Shadwell, Thomas Durfey and Didactic Drama of the Restoration." A Companion to Restoration Drama. Ed. Susan J. Owen. Oxford, England: Blackwell, 2008.
1100:
193:
serious scientists and amateur virtuosos, Shadwell was striking a deathblow against the virtuosos specifically, but that the serious scientists were above attack and thus unharmed by
Shadwell's satire.
173:
As Claude Lloyd has demonstrated, virtually all of the experiments that Sir
Nicholas Gimcrack performs can be traced directly to a real scientific experiment of the day, most reported either in
235:
McBride, M. F. "Thomas
Shadwell on Music and Dance in Restoration England." English Miscellany: A Symposium of History, Literature and the Arts 28. (1979): 197–206.
182:
127:
Bruce and Longvil, two young men-about-town, described by Shadwell in the cast list as "Gentlemen of wit and sense," have fallen in love with the two nieces of the
337:
189:. Hooke himself actually attended a performance of the original production and, humiliated, identified himself as the specific target of Shadwell's satire.
49:. Well received in its original production, it was revived several times over the next thirty years and "always found Success." The original cast included
300:
Gilde, Joseph M. “Shadwell and the Royal Society: Satire in the Virtuoso.” SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900 10.3 (Summer 1970): 469–490.
214:
Nicolson, Marjorie Hope and David Stuart Rodes. Introduction. The Virtuoso. By Thomas Shadwell. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1966. xi–xxvi.
139:(resulting in a sheep's tail growing out of the man's anus), and bottling air from various parts of the country to be stored in his cellar like wine.
447:
1142:
146:
The cast is rounded out by Sir Nicholas's curmudgeonly uncle Snarl, whose money Sir Nicholas hopes to inherit, and Snarl's whore Mrs. Figgup.
309:
Houghton, Walter R. Jr. “The English Virtuoso in the Seventeenth Century: Part I.” Journal of the History of Ideas 3.1 (Jan. 1942): 51–73.
291:
Chico, Tita. “Gimcrack’s Legacy: Sex, Wealth, and the Theater of Experimental Philosophy.” Comparative Drama 42.1 (Spring 2008): 29–49.
997:
1002:
1147:
330:
422:
103:'s style of humour comedy, in which each humorous character displays one unique and excessive folly. In his dedication to
22:
561:
489:
481:
1137:
323:
801:
412:
402:
1066:
1043:
1132:
462:
407:
270:
Borgman, Albert S. Thomas Shadwell: His Life and Comedies. New York City: The New York University Press, 1928.
165:, and Bruce and Longvil are happy in their hopes of eventual marriages to Miranda and Clarinda, respectively.
1079:
921:
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66:
1094:
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951:
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154:-weavers, upset because they fear Sir Nicholas has invented a machine that will put them out of business.
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258:. Ed. Marjorie Hope Nicolson and David Stuart Rodes. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1966.
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lies primarily in its highly relevant satire on contemporary science and on the
987:
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362:
116:
100:
282:
Lloyd, Claude. "Shadwell and the Virtuosi.” PMLA 44.2 (Jun. 1929): 472–494.
745:
96:, which, founded in 1660, was of great interest to Restoration audiences.
1053:
128:
1084:
315:
151:
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Sir Nicholas is left a ruined man, yet still hoping to discover the
1101:
Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage
99:
Shadwell was also known as the Restoration's leading advocate of
319:
1106:
941:
226:
Alssid, Michael W. Thomas Shadwell. New York: Twayne, 1967.
84:
Shadwell is acknowledged as the most topical of the major
1011:
960:
932:
470:
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8:
137:transfusing the blood of a sheep into a man
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222:
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276:
202:
7:
16:17th-century play by Thomas Shadwell
1003:John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester
88:playwrights and the uniqueness of
14:
461:
1:
1143:Plays set in the 17th century
490:The Adventures of Five Hours
482:The Cutter of Coleman Street
1164:
802:The Marriage-Hater Matched
183:Philosophical Transactions
69:as Sir Nicholas Gimcrack,
20:
1090:Restoration of Charles II
459:
1148:Plays by Thomas Shadwell
706:A Commonwealth of Women
1095:Second Anglo-Dutch War
914:The Recruiting Officer
514:She Would If She Could
57:as Sir Samuel Hearty,
53:as Sir Formal Trifle,
818:The Canterbury Guests
738:The Squire of Alsatia
626:Friendship in Fashion
111:, Lawrence Maidwell,
43:Dorset Garden Theatre
1080:Lincoln's Inn Fields
922:The Beaux' Stratagem
906:The Careless Husband
882:The Way of the World
119:, and Peter Pindar.
41:, first produced at
21:For other uses, see
874:The Constant Couple
754:The Fortune Hunters
730:A Fool's Preferment
666:The London Cuckolds
506:The Mulberry-Garden
498:The Comical Revenge
163:philosopher's stone
1138:Restoration comedy
562:Marriage Ă la mode
530:Sir Solomon Single
347:Restoration comedy
254:Shadwell, Thomas.
73:as Lady Gimcrack,
47:The Duke's Company
35:Restoration comedy
1115:
1114:
1029:Comedy of manners
890:Sir Harry Wildair
866:Love and a Bottle
842:Love's Last Shift
762:The English Friar
674:Sir Barnaby Whigg
658:The Woman Captain
522:An Evening's Love
453:William Wycherley
368:Susanna Centlivre
169:Scientific satire
113:Susanna Centlivre
1155:
1024:Chocolate houses
1012:Related articles
993:James II and VII
826:The Married Beau
786:The Wives Excuse
770:Sir Anthony Love
714:Sir Courtly Nice
594:The Plain-Dealer
578:Love in the Dark
570:The Country Wife
465:
433:Thomas Southerne
378:William Congreve
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77:as Clarinda and
75:Elizabeth Currer
59:Thomas Betterton
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1154:
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1133:Satirical plays
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1007:
983:Marquis de Sade
956:
928:
898:The Lying Lover
858:The Campaigners
690:City Politiques
642:Tunbridge Wells
602:The Man of Mode
586:The Country Wit
466:
457:
448:George Villiers
428:Thomas Shadwell
398:George Farquhar
393:George Etherege
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67:Thomas Percival
39:Thomas Shadwell
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778:Love for Money
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618:A Fond Husband
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538:Love in a Wood
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109:Thomas d'Urfey
79:Mary Betterton
61:as Longvill,
55:Cave Underhill
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1060:The Libertine
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546:The Rehearsal
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443:John Vanbrugh
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413:Robert Howard
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403:Edward Howard
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373:Colley Cibber
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187:Royal Society
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94:Royal Society
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71:Anne Shadwell
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51:Anthony Leigh
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682:The Royalist
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650:A True Widow
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418:Thomas Otway
408:James Howard
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256:The Virtuoso
255:
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191:
179:Micrographia
175:Robert Hooke
172:
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133:
126:
123:Plot summary
105:The Virtuoso
104:
98:
90:The Virtuoso
89:
83:
81:as Miranda.
63:Thomas Jevon
30:The Virtuoso
29:
28:
27:
23:The Virtuoso
18:
1075:Libertinism
998:Georg Monck
850:The Relapse
698:Dame Dobson
610:Tom Essence
554:Epsom Wells
383:John Dryden
355:Playwrights
86:Restoration
65:as Hazard,
45:in 1676 by
1128:1676 plays
1122:Categories
1044:Drury Lane
968:Charles II
934:Characters
363:Aphra Behn
197:References
117:Aphra Behn
101:Ben Jonson
746:Bury Fair
722:Bellamira
1054:Hedonism
471:Notable
245:340–354.
129:virtuoso
988:Molière
185:of the
1070:(film)
1062:(1994)
1019:Bedlam
925:(1707)
917:(1706)
909:(1704)
901:(1703)
893:(1701)
885:(1700)
877:(1699)
869:(1698)
861:(1698)
853:(1696)
845:(1696)
837:(1695)
829:(1694)
821:(1694)
813:(1692)
805:(1692)
797:(1691)
789:(1691)
781:(1691)
773:(1690)
765:(1690)
757:(1689)
749:(1689)
741:(1688)
733:(1688)
725:(1687)
717:(1685)
709:(1685)
701:(1683)
693:(1683)
685:(1682)
677:(1681)
669:(1681)
661:(1679)
653:(1678)
645:(1678)
637:(1678)
629:(1678)
621:(1677)
613:(1676)
605:(1676)
597:(1676)
589:(1676)
581:(1675)
573:(1675)
565:(1672)
557:(1672)
549:(1671)
541:(1671)
533:(1670)
525:(1668)
517:(1668)
509:(1668)
501:(1664)
493:(1663)
485:(1661)
152:ribbon
1034:Court
947:Spark
473:plays
33:is a
1085:Mode
952:Rake
1107:Wit
942:Fop
181:or
177:’s
37:by
1124::
275:^
263:^
219:^
205:^
115:,
339:e
332:t
325:v
25:.
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